Teaching orthodontic emergencies using the “flipped classroom” method of teaching—A mixed methods RCT

Abstract

Introduction In the United Kingdom, the General Dental Council requires newly graduated dentists to be competent in managing orthodontic emergencies. Undergraduate students typically receive limited exposure to orthodontics, with teaching primarily delivered via conventional lectures. Flipped teaching involves knowledge being acquired in students’ own time, with class time focussing on construction of meaning. Methods A total of 61 undergraduate dental students were randomised into either a flipped or a conventional group. The conventional group (n = 30) attended a lecture describing the management of six common emergencies. The flipped group (n = 31) were given access to six videos via a virtual learning environment and later completed practical tasks related to the material. Both groups completed a single best answer assessment. Perceptions of flipped classroom teaching were explored via focus groups. Results For questions on orthodontic emergencies, the conventional group had a mean examination result of 70.5% (SD 8.0%) compared with the flipped group of 72.8% (SD 12.9%). There was no significant difference between the groups (P = .532). For regular orthodontic questions, the conventional group had a mean examination result of 64.8% (SD: 19.9%) compared with 78.3% (SD: 21.7%). There was no significant difference between the groups (P = .083). Thematic analysis identified the following themes: ways in which videos encourages more effective learning, improved engagement, awareness of learning needs and proposed teaching/curriculum changes. The overarching theoretical perspective was facilitating an experiential learning cycle using flipped classroom teaching. Conclusions In the context of this investigation, the flipped classroom method of teaching resulted in comparable examination performance and improved levels of satisfaction.

Flipped Classroom Experiences in Clinical Dentistry – A Strategic Mini-Review

“…This result was seen in relation to all forms of clinical exposure, from diagnosis to medical emergencies to routine clinical procedures. However, 6 out of 16 studies have shown that the perception of students to FC was reserved/ not superior to another form of blended learning like TBL [11,12,20,21,23,24]. It was also reflected in their test scores which were the same as that of the traditional classroom.…”

“…In dentistry, the use of an alternative method of learning is nothing new. FC as an alternative method for traditional classroom is discussed in original papers and reviews [11,12]. Reviews available to date combined both pre-clinical and clinical dentistry [13,14].…”

Formation of Professional Readyness of the Future Specialist

“…Imorde et al (2020) conducted a pilot study on the adaptation and validation of the Berlin Questionnaire of Evidence-Based Dentistry for dental students. Isherwood et al (2020) provide teaching of orthodontic emergencies using the method of "inverted class" -mixed methods of RCT. Kirnbauer and Ali (2020) compared the state of harmonization of dental education twenty years after the launch of the Bologna Process.…”

Research and Exploration of Online to Offline (O2O) Blended Teaching for Talent Cultivating

“…to a variety of discipline and specialty [3,4]. Researches reveal that Online to Offline (O2O) blended teaching [5] can make better use of teaching materials, social resources and industry information. O2O overturns the long-time dominant teaching model "teaching as centerpiece" and it truly realizes "study as centerpiece", which is more suitable for appealing personality learning nowadays, thus it receives extensive attention from educational circles.…”